Most businesses have a trusted tax professional, CPA, or tax attorney as part of their team. You might have a trusted CPA that you have used for years that helps your business with filing state and federal tax filings. You may also have a tax lawyer on your team as someone you trust if you have ever found yourself in a jam with the IRS. Most CPA’s and tax lawyers are worth their weight in gold when it comes to preparing returns or helping your business navigate the IRS controversy world. However, most tax lawyers and CPAs are not up to speed, never have dealt with, and do not want anything to do with state sales tax issues. Just ask them!
The reason CPAs and tax lawyers avoid state sales tax like the Coronavirus (too soon?) is actually very logical. For starters, most CPA’s and tax lawyers are not trained in state sales tax. Few law schools offer any kind of state tax training and CPA’s often start their careers by handling federal income tax return preparation and IRS controversy work. Like most people, they often do not receive the training necessary to be sales tax specialists and usually forgo pursuing it as their career unfolds.
Further, state sales tax is its own animal, it is not intuitive, and frankly, most CPAs and tax lawyers do not take it on as a practice area because they do not handle enough cases to gain state sales tax competency. Unlike your CPA or tax lawyer who may handle 2-3 state sales tax cases or issues a year; we often handle hundreds. At several hundred per year and after doing this for decades, this is our primary practice area and we know how to handle state sales tax problems.
Unlike IRS issues, which are uniform across the country, the unique and obscure world that is state sales tax differs in every state. It would likely not make sense to take on learning 45 different sets of rules in an area CPA and tax lawyer communities do not cover. Just as your CPA and tax lawyer are experts in handling your federal tax needs, our team can assist you with your sales tax problems because it is simply what we do.
Most companies have a tight relationship with CPAs or tax lawyers that have helped them along the way. Maybe it’s a friend, relative, or just someone that has been helping you forever. Similar to how it important it is for your general practitioner to steer you to the right specialist doctor when a unique issue arises, we regularly work closely with your CPA or tax lawyer for your state sales tax problem.
We welcome the opportunity to be part of your team and look forward to working with your CPA or tax lawyer to get your state tax problem resolved!